History bears him out when it comes to open-wheel racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Through 29 IndyCar or CART races contested in Lexington, 27 of the winners started no worse than the third row. Eleven winners came from the pole and 16 from the front row.

The two outliers – Al Unser Jr. in 1995 and Juan Pablo Montoya in 1999 – both started eighth, coming from the fourth row.

Power passed the threshold by making the Fast Six for Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying. He will start sixth in today's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Veteran Sebastien Bourdais took his second pole of the season and 33rd of his career, tying him with Dario Franchitti on the all-time list.

"You have to start at the front here if you want to have a good weekend," Bourdais said.

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course isn't kind on its best day. Add water and it's evil.

"Obviously the conditions were really tricky," said James Hinchcliffe who will start 17th. "The cars just had no grip."

A noon downpour was enough to shake-up qualifying two hours later.

Points leader Helio Castroneves and four-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon failed to get out of their first sessions and will start 15th and 22nd respectively.

"Not only was it wet, there were so many yellows that we only got one timed lap in," Castroneves said. "At the end of the day it was the same for everyone. We were the first car out and tried some different lines. Sometimes that is not the best place to be. It gives the other guys some direction on where to run."

Castroneves will try to make the most of it in the race as he seeks his first IndyCar championship.

"It is what it is, though," he said. "We'll just have to keep working and hope the race tomorrow is better than qualifying."

Towering plumes of mist off the tires made visibility difficult. There were three stoppages in the first two qualifying sessions. Even as the track dried for the Fast Six, it was still way off in terms of grip.

"It's a big roller coaster emotionally because you never know exactly how you're going to fare," Bourdais said. "I guess after the first run, I felt pretty comfortable. The car was giving me good feedback on the braking. I didn't have to dare it to the very last yard or whatever to really figure out how much I needed to go to produce a good lap time."

The pole-winning time of 1:24.161 (96.586 mph) of Bourdais was almost 19 seconds off the best times set in Saturday's dry morning practice session.

"The last lap I knew we were not on pole," Bourdais said. "It was going to take a little bit more. I just went for it, started to kind of drift the car from the apex to the exit. It worked out."

CLOSE

IndyCar's James Hinchcliffe jokes about his mustache, Ryan Hunter-Reay talks about needing a win, and Sebastien Bourdais talks about his spirits at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

It worked out for Josef Newgarden who will start from the front row for the second time this season, but first on a road course.

"I think honestly the rain helped a little bit, just spread everyone out. It's so tight," Newgarden said. "Just trying to get the most out of each lap was the key. You couldn't have any mistakes was the big deal."

Veteran Tony Kanaan will start third next to rookie Carlos Munoz.

"I think it's hard to pass here, so, yeah, the strategy is going to counts a lot tomorrow," Munoz said. "We saw this the last couple of years. Everything is much easier when you started in front. Happy to have the experience. It's a long race, anything can happen."

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Power, who are second and third behind Castroneves, will start together in the third row with Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson behind them.

"To qualify seventh is pretty good. It's a good place to start from, a good place to work from at this track," Rahal said, adding that he missed the Fast Six by one-hundredth of a second. "Obviously we would like to be further forward."

Besides Castroneves and Dixon, others who will need to pass a lot of cars during the race are Simon Pagenaud who is ninth, Juan Pablo Montoya who is 11th, Marco Andretti who is 16th, former Mid-Ohio winner Ryan Briscoe who is 19th and last year's winner Charlie Kimball who is 20th.

"If we come up with a solid strategy and the race falls our way, you never know what could happen," Pagenaud said.